My Welsh Codd Bottle

I have an old bottle sitting on my desk. It's a Cood bottle from North Wales, an area where my father hails from. I obtained it during a trip there some years ago. I decided to find out about it if I could and wrote to a very friendly and helpful man, Keith in Canarvon. He's connected to Segontium Searchers who provide a 'Genealogy & Local History Research Service'.

Anyway, he said of it: This is a lovely bottle with the Welsh Leek trade mark. Codd bottles are normally very common in the UK and worth very little, but this is one that isn't seen very often. Yours appears to be in very good condition...Peter Evans was born in Ruthin in 1863/64, the son of William Evans, an engraver. By the time he was 17 years old he was working in one of the established mineral water firms in the town (R. Ellis & Son or Cambrian). He was in business for himself by 1881 and was still trading in 1911. I do not have a date when he ceased trading. The bottle would probably date to the 1890's or early 1900's.

So it sits on my desk, a bottle that through its content of mineral water, slaked the thirst of an unknown person perhaps a century ago. Little did they know it would find its way around the world to be an ornament that reminds me of a trip I took to the old country.